Lobo's a monosyllabic knuckle-dragger, but probably still gets the best lines here?

I found this in the garage, while looking for one of the Legends of the Dead Earth annuals I thought I had (and I did! That's four bucks I'll keep in my pocket) but until I looked it up the other day, I would've sworn there was a Lobo annual in LotDE. There wasn't, but man, wouldn't that have been fun to write? 40 pages of Lobo going "aww, diddum widdle pwanlet blow up? What'cha gonna do, nancypants, cry 'bout it?" and then exaggerated stories about how he kicked the living crap out of everyone in the so-called Heroic Age, from Superman down to the Red Bee. It would end with him having a cheerful guffaw that annoying planet was long gone, then having a coughing fit; before it was time for his pills and bowel irrigation at the nursing home...Anyway, on to this comic: from 2010, Green Lantern #55, "The New Guardians, chapter three" Written by Geoff Johns, pencils by Doug Mahnke, inks by Christian Alamy, Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne, and Doug Mahnke.

Most of these GL comics I got from the cheap bins, but two surprises right off the start: this looked like a multi-part story completely within the title. Usually, the first chapter was here, then over to Green Lantern Corps or a myriad of other books, but this was maybe setting up one. Also, it opens in Montana! Specifically in Grass Range, Montana: I'm not sure I've ever even been through there, but it also may not be drawn with any reference besides "outsides." The Crispus Allen Spectre investigates a dead cow, which warns him to "stay away!" in a Red Lantern bubble. Meanwhile, in New York City, we find Lobo throwing down with Hal and Atrocitus, already in progress, with a two-page spread that I hope Mahnke got some folding money for on the back end.

Hal and Carol are momentarily unsure who they should help on that one, but Hal gets a message from the White Lantern that Atrocitus has his mission. So, killjoy Hal muzzles Lobo's dog, then runs him over with his own bike. After going over the rules, which Hal admits he doesn't really follow either, Hal does get a good shot in with giant green brass knuckles--the big green boxing glove wasn't going to cut it there, I suppose. This issue moves fast, without a lot of transitions, as Sinestro is also there, and coldly throws the works at Lobo: a giant skeletal hand, what looks like metal tentacles, and some chainguns. A disgruntled Lobo wonders "what god ate a rainbow and threw it up across the universe," then Carol tries to contain him, which only works for a few seconds, and Lobo whispers to her what he really loves...which catches him a power-construct slap. Dex-Starr takes on Lobo's dog, who was not expecting red rage vomit hairballs; Lobo tells him to suck it up.

Finally, since the bigger mission with the power ring entities had priority, Hal reluctantly tells Lobo if he wanted Atrocitus, he would have to go through all of them. Lobo scoffs, "yeah, I'm the one with screwed-up priorities," but still leaves; and Hal isn't quite sure why. Sinestro suggests, Lobo was afraid of Hal, that he still had a little Parallax in him. But, the real reason is, the one who set the bounty on Atrocitus was...Atrocitus himself! Not because he hated himself, as we'd see later in Red Lanterns, but because he needed the others to work with him. Job done, Lobo ponders his payment: a red power ring, 'cause if you can't beat 'em...

Also this issue, and possibly more of a draw than Lobo at the time: the secret origin of Dex-Starr! "Dex-Starr" Written by Geoff Johns, art by Shawn Davis, with special thanks to Jamie Grant. It's a tear-jerker, as little kitty Dexter is adopted by a lonely woman, who is later killed in a home invasion. He's then given the boot from his home by the cops, under the guise of not contaminating the crime scene, then grabbed by some punks who put him in a bag and throw him off a bridge; making him a veritable beacon of rage, perfect for a Red Lantern ring. We don't see him murder the punks, but that's gotta be a given. The story ends with Dex-Starr sleeping cuddled against what I think was his owner's skull, as he promises to find and kill her murderer. "I good kitty." I don't know if Dex-Starr ever did, though; because comics: he's been sucked into other things, and if he did find the killer, would it be like Batman finding Joe Chill? Would he have a reason to keep hating? (Probably because they weren't fully codified until later, Dex-Starr doesn't seem to follow the same rules as other Reds; but that could be just because he's a cat and always has a certain baseline of hate running in the background.)